Exxon, Be Gone: Help stop another massive oil spill in California by telling officials to reject a dangerous new plan by ExxonMobil. To provide a more accurate death-toll estimate, we used multiplication factors from leading scientists to estimate how many more animals are killed than are actually observed or collected. We found that the spill likely harmed or killed about 82, birds of species; about 6, sea turtles; as many as 25, marine mammals; and a vast but unknown number of fish — from the great bluefin tuna to our nation's smallest seahorse — plus oysters, crabs, corals and other creatures.
As for habitat: Besides destroying underwater areas, including substantial habitat for the rare dwarf seahorse, the spill oiled more than a thousand miles of shoreline, including beaches and marshes. This took a terrible toll on species like seagrass, beach mice and shorebirds. At least species of birds are known to have been harmed by the BP oil spill, including black skimmers, brown pelicans, clapper rails, common loons, laughing gulls, northern gannets and several species of tern.
The number of birds reported by the government as being injured by the spill represents only a portion of the total affected. The official number refers only to birds that wildlife officials collected, not including oiled birds seen but not collected — not to mention the many birds that vanished undetected. On-the-scene biologists say the official count greatly underestimates the number of birds actually harmed. In fact, scientific research shows we can assume actual mortality to be four to 11 times higher than the number of birds retrieved.
A common rule of thumb estimates actual mortality at likely 10 times higher than reported. Thus the 8,plus birds collected indicates that more than 82, may have been harmed by the spill. Of particular concern are brown pelicans and federally threatened piping plovers. Brown pelicans were removed from the endangered species list just five months before the Gulf disaster.
Since the spill, brown pelicans have been collected, so we can assumed that more than 9, have likely been harmed. Although satellites and aircraft helped show the extent of the spill at the surface, researchers hoped that the AUV would allow them to understand what was happening farther down in the water column.
The resulting data helped the researchers identify a persistent deep oil plume and link the oil in this plume to its source: the Deepwater Horizon blowout. To build models of oil movement at the surface, researchers first had to understand where ocean eddies, currents and waves carried the tiny oil particles. This citizen science endeavor provided general information about how far the waves can carry a floating object and specific data points that can be used to improve models of where the oil disperses.
Their location gets tracked for weeks or months at a time and provide an unprecedented amount of location-based data for modeling. This information can be used to better predict oil movement in case of future spills, as well as predict other current-related movements like for marine debris and algal blooms.
After the Deepwater Horizon spill, oil was mixed throughout the ocean and made its way to coastal and deep-sea sediments. Researchers continue to collect samples from both the water and the sediment to determine if oil is present, and where exactly it came from.
Chemical analysis of oil found after a spill can be used to determine its original source. In the case of Deepwater Horizon, tracking the origins of oil slicks that appeared after the well was capped proved helpful in determining if a new leak might have sprung.
At the outset, the twenty-person GoMRI Research Board adopted five main research themes to focus on: physical movement of the oil and dispersant, degradation of the oil and its interaction with the ecosystem, environmental effects of the oil and dispersant, development of technology for improved response and remediation, and the effects of oil and dispersant on human health.
GoMRI-funded studies have examined where the oil went after the spill and how the oil affected many types of marine life, including deep-sea coral ecosystems, seabirds, and jellyfish, to name just a few. As scientists in the Gulf collect organisms potentially affected by the oil, they will need to compare them to animals from previous decades to identify how they have changed, if at all.
Here's where Smithsonian Collections can play a role. Soon after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Smithsonian Collections staff plotted invertebrate holdings from the Gulf onto Google Earth. Since , invertebrate specimens have been deposited in the national collections of the National Museum of Natural History's Department of Invertebrate Zoology. In the Gulf of Mexico, more than 57, invertebrates points on the map from 5, distinct collecting sites from 14 Mineral Management Service survey programs point colors have been cataloged.
Following the Deepwater Horizon incident in late April , collections staff updated the files to reflect the latest areas affected by the spill in real-time. A Smithsonian study of a oil spill on the coast of Panama attracted renewed interest for its insights into the effects of oil spills on coastal systems.
The benchmark study PDF , published in , documented the damage oil causes to coastal and tidal habitats. It's particularly notable because it includes 15 years of ecological data about the area before the spill collected by the Smithsonian. The affected area includes the Smithsonian biological reserve known as the Galeta Marine Laboratory. In this video interview with the Smithsonian Ocean Portal, he reflects on the Panama study and its implications for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and reminds listeners that the greatest threats to the ocean— overfishing , climate change , and other types of pollution —combined actually exceed the devastation that unfolded in the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
At Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, Chris Reddy studies the long-term effects of oil spills, as well as natural oil seeps that occur off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. In this video , watch as he digs beneath the surface in Wild Harbor salt marsh in Cape Cod, Massachusetts to find layers of oil from a spill that occurred more than 40 years ago. This leftover oil continues to impact the wetland's ecology and wildlife. And to the naked eye, the marsh looks beautiful and pristine.
Reddy testified before a Congressional panel investigating the Gulf oil spill. In the immediate aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, concerns about public health focused on people coming into direct contact with the oil and dispersants. A recent study discovered dispersants had an unintended benefit during the initial oil cleanup.
As the dispersant broke apart the oil into smaller droplets it also decreased the amount of harmful gases that rose to the sea surface where emergency cleanup crews were working. This decreased the health risks associated with working near the spill, reduced the number of days where it was too hazardous to work, and enabled a quicker cleanup.
However, long-term questions about oil spills and their impact on human health remain. The National Institutes of Health began to address these in a study that is tracking 33, cleanup workers and volunteers for a decade. The research will assess whether exposure to crude oil and dispersants has an effect on physical and mental health.
As the days, weeks, and months progressed the indirect impacts related to seafood consumption also gained attention. The chemicals in oil that are of most concern to humans are called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons PAHs. Some of these are known to cause cancer.
The U. It works in conjunction with NOAA, the EPA, and state agencies to determine which fisheries are safe to open and which ones should be closed.
In order for a fishery to be reopened, it must pass both a "smell" test and a chemical analysis. Seafood cannot go to market if it contains harmful levels of PAHs or if it emits an odor associated with petroleum or dispersants.
Fishing area closures peaked on June 2, , when 88, square miles of the Gulf of Mexico were off-limits. On April 19, , NOAA announced that commercial and recreational fishing could resume in all of the federal waters that were affected by the spill.
Nine years after the spill, the National Academy of Science determined that dispersant impacts on seafood were extremely low, citing studies that found dispersant chemical concentrations to be low or nonexistent in fish and shellfish. Pictures of pelicans, sea turtles, and other Gulf of Mexico wildlife struggling in oil were among some of the most disturbing images of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in According to the U.
National Zoo personnel were dispatched to the Gulf largely to assist with the process of relocating animals affected by the spill and helping to identify future release sites for those rescued. Luis Padilla, a Zoo veterinarian who helped with a pelican release in Texas, and Dr. There were twice as many Gulf menhaden , for example, in the years following the spill as in four decades before, likely because so many fish-eating birds were absent.
Other fish species have shown evidence of having been harmed by oil, including nearly two thirds of all Gulf sturgeon, a threatened species. Studies of the economically valuable spotted seatrout and red drum found that fish in oiled areas showed reduced reproduction, and that even years after the spill, oil remaining in the environment is still toxic to fish larvae.
Read how some fish deformities have been linked to the spill. Recent research that tested 2, different fish across the Gulf found evidence of oil exposure in all 91 species sampled, suggesting that the impacts of the spill are widespread and ongoing. It could take decades to understand how oil affects the next generation of whales, coral, sea turtles, birds, fish, and more.
For Smith, Frasier, Etnoyer, and others involved in spill research, this event has become career-encompassing. Their research will be devoted to monitoring and understanding the Gulf for many years to come—particularly if these ecosystems remain vulnerable. In May , the U. Department of the Interior rolled back safety regulations to offshore drilling that were put in place to prevent a repeat of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Is another deepwater disaster inevitable?
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Go Further. But when ocean water evaporates, so do these chemicals. When they are carried inland by the wind, they can sicken those who inhale them. In their interviews, many of these patients who worked on spill cleanup said they were discouraged by BP contractors from using protective gear, even though, as study later showed , Corexit, when mixed with oil is 52 times more toxic than oil alone. Those who complained were met with efforts to silence them.
In their affidavits and interviews, former cleanup workers attested to being the victims of an intimidation campaign for revealing they were ill. The sick were followed, their homes broken into, their trash ransacked, their privacy corroded.
They became increasingly isolated. Their advocates, meanwhile, were attacked in vicious online campaigns. With the rise of social media, Internet trolls connected to BP swarmed whistleblowers who posted photos of oiled beaches. He began coughing up blood and suffering blinding migraines during the first month the blowout continued.
He still suffers from chronic bronchitis and wears special sunglasses to correct a heightened light sensitivity he has experienced since the disaster. Burning and skimming operations in the Gulf of Mexico; June 10, When Moore sought help at an Alabama hospital, he was told he was making things up for a quick payday.
Like hundreds of others, he eventually found treatment far away from the Gulf. It established what Moore and others had known for years — cleanup workers exposed to Corexit during the nearly three months oil spilled into the sea were likely to experience coughs, wheezing, chest tightness and eye, nose, throat and lung irritation. The NIH study was followed by another, in , from Johns Hopkins University , which found that oil dispersants increased the concentration of ultrafine particles, which can travel through the air and penetrate human lungs.
And in , the US Coast Guard, which coordinated the response to the Deepwater Horizon spill, released a study on 4, of personnel that responded to the disaster. The study found a relationship between increased exposure to dispersants and the likelihood of symptoms including coughing and shortness of breath.
These findings are borne out by the Government Accountability Project, which conducted a new 10 th anniversary survey of the witnesses it interviewed for its earlier report.
The new report establishes that nearly all of them were still suffering from symptoms they had reported in the months following the spill. In many cases, the report notes, some were reporting that their health had worsened.
More than 37, people filed claims under the class action suit. But eight years later, only a fraction of those claims have been paid.
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